Solar Power Pre-Deployment To Afghanistan? 184
dAzED1 writes "My little brother is heading for training at 29 Palms as a Navy Corpsman with FMF. He gets a [Sailor|Soldier|Marine]'s pay, so while he can't afford gadgets, I can; since he'll be in a LAR unit, I was thinking of getting him a small video camera, an iPod, and some sort of solar recharger. Whatever he takes, he'll have to be able to carry in his pack, which is already going to be heavy with his medic gear. Other than the weight issue, I am having problems finding a solar recharger that doesn't get wildly differing reviews as to basic quality. He'll have plenty of sun and few clouds, but it needs to be lightweight, effective, and robust. With price not being much of a concern, what would you suggest for accomplishing this? Advice on a small robust video camera would be appreciated as well."
Flip video camera (Score:1, Insightful)
I've got nothing to suggest re PV but the Flip video camera sounds like it would fit the bill quite well. Simple, robust, tough, easy to use. Probably want to give it a different paint job, though. Kinda bright colors from the look of it.
Video Cam (Score:5, Insightful)
Make sure the video cam you get him is flash memory based. HD based ones will certainly die with the shock and vibration they will take in the field. I recently got Canon Vixia HF10, which is flash based, HD and works quite well. However, for something the field he may prefer something a bit more robust like a Sanyo Xacti or a Flip HD.
Wind up? (Score:5, Insightful)
How about a wind up power supply instead? I read that the US Military was actually considering procuring and deploying these to combat the "battery problem."
Oh, wind up power supplies are powered themselves by . . . MREs.
Bling? In Combat? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"With price not being much of a concern..." (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"With price not being much of a concern..." (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget the charger... (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget the charger, and get him something nice that runs on AAs. Lots of military equipment, such as the AN/PRC-14 night vision goggles or the little radios that squads carry around, run on AAs and so he is sure never to have a shortage. You literally have boxes of these things just floating around where ever you go. They aren't that heavy, they are virtually unbreakable, and he will have to carry some anyway. When I was in, guys bought electric shavers that ran on AAs expressly for this reason.
Besides, his unit will appreciate him not flipping a mirror out for all to see whenever he wants to listen to music.
Some Real Advice from a Marine (Score:1, Insightful)
Having 2 years deployment time in Iraq, I'll assure you that the solar charger is overkill. Your brother is more likely going to need a high wattage, 220v converter and a power strip. The solar cell is a great idea, but unless these guys are going out for a week at a time, I doubt the solar cell is going to do much. However, if he is, I would recommend finding some kind of 12v power converter so he could hook it to the HMMWV's battery.
Also, keeping in mind that your brother's a corpsman, he usually will have access to a generator, unless he is on patrol with LAR.
When I look back on it, if I were to list the things that were most useful:
Solar Shower (if your brother is moving all the time)
Baby Wipes (When you don't have enough water to take a shower)
Utility Knife (Eating MRE's suck unless you cut them down the middle)
Water Heater (the MRE heaters suck, so we used to just heat them in this)
Condiments (Tapatio, Texas Pete, Salt and Pepper, etc.: life is unbearable if you have to eat an MRE plain [tray rations are worse])
Febreeze (because your neighbor probably didn't bring baby wipes or a solar shower [attack him in his sleep!])
Snacks (send a lot throughout the deployment [tuna, canned chicken, whatever]; keep in mind that he'll probably go weeks without packages).
New TV shows, music, movies. Keep him updated, because it sucks trying to catch up. Send it to him on disk (divxed and burnt on DVD) or better yet, cheap flash media.
I would say the best gadget I had on deployment was my Share Steno hard drive. It emulates a computer and will allow you to transfer media to and from devices [probably not an Ipod though].
Also, I bought a cheap little COBY DVD player that can play divx/xvid on a 9 inch screen. Cost something like $120 and I liked it a lot better than an Ipod [too small], PSP [pain in the butt to get media going on it] or laptop [too bulky, power hog when traveling].
Anyways, I hope this helped. I wish you brother good luck and I hope he returns safely.
Re:Pay (Score:5, Insightful)
Semper Fi, Jarhead.
I got out in '93, mainly because I was tired of working two extra jobs plus keeping up with everything with the Corps, just to support my family. I was a Cpl at the time, living in base housing, with one kid, one car, one wife, and not much else. As I recall, my total gross from my military pay was right at 13K that year. I made almost that much working part time at McD's that year.
I got out and took a job with a defense contractor doing the same thing I was doing in the Corps (TMDE repair/calibration), and immediately was grossing more than 25K.
While I was in, everyone I knew below the rank of Gunny or SSgt, and had a family was on food stamps and WIC.
And for the other poster commenting on the tricked out cars and crap he saw on the air force base... Stop and think... There's not many places to spend money when you're deployed to a combat zone. I suspect most of those 'kids' you saw that you thought were right outta boot have been to the sandbox and back.
Also, for your further education, the military doesn't pay all your expenses as an enlisted man... at least not when I was in the Corps. No one drew a pay check for the entire 12 weeks of boot camp, but when we got our initial pay, we took that $900 check they gave us, and spent most of it paying for our uniforms, our PX bill, and our travel to take our 10 day leave. While I was in school at 29 Palms, I didn't get paid at all for three months because of a payroll screw up. When I finally got paid, I owed for uniforms, haircuts, etc. When I was in school at MCLB Albany, GA, I ended up spending more than an entire months take home on a complete new issue of uniforms just so I could pass the Junk on Bunk inspections to get weekend liberty and not spend all weekend picking up trash on the CG's detail, or doing something equally banal on orders designed to give me something to do to keep young Marines out of trouble.
I'll end the rant this has become by simply saying this... no matter how much members of the military get paid, especially young enlisted men and women, they've made the choice to put their lives on the line, to shed their blood, just so other people back home can continue to make statements and assumptions about things they truly don't and will never understand.
It is by the blood of these men and women, my brothers and sisters in arms, that this country, as bad as it may be at the moment, is still the place people such as yourself gladly call home.
Re:Video Cam (Score:2, Insightful)